>> your you're welcome. ♪ >> announcer: this is al jazee jazeera. ♪ hello and welcome to the news hour, i'm businesslet in doha and coming up, in the next 60 minutes a desperate delivery and the world health organization go ahead to deliver medical supplies to thousands of syrians. the battle of sinjar, iraqi, kurdish forces closer to breaking the siege which trapped thousands of people. final votes being counted after record turn out at the poles and

kasmeed and penthouse to prison and the hong kong billionaire sent to jail for corruption. ♪ we begin in syria with thousands of people trapped by fighting could soon get much-needed aid, the world health organization has approval to deliver supplys to parts of aleppo and damascus and diseases on the rise in the areas as dana reports and a warning you may find some pictures in her report disturbing. >> reporter: hygiene-related disease on the rise in syria, this girl diagnosed with a parasite infection spread by flies. according to doctors cases like these show how the crumbling healthcare system and the worsening living conditions especially in rebel-held areas are affecting people. >> translator: we have no pe

pestsides and there is no hygiene. >> reporter: lack of water in easter guta surrounding the government siege and the problem of contaminated water is not confined to rule damascus and across syria the world health organization reported 6500 of tyfoid and hepatitis is a problem. >> and a problem in damascus area lately and damaged to the sewage system and often this is followed by diseases. and we have seen the infectious diseases in the suburbs of damascus. >> reporter: w.h.o. delivering three times medal supplies in 2014 than it did last year and some of the deliveries were at

hard hard to reach areas and want to reach opposition territories. >> it's a security problem and can be hard to access. we have had some of the convoys through but this has not been on a regular basis because of security issues. >> reporter: and it is vital that supplies continue to reach those in need, more than half of the public hospitals are out of service. syria's healthcare system has been severely damaged by the war. and many syrians have died from treatable illnesses simply because of the lack of medicine. let's go to zana on the line joining us from beirut and lebanon and approval has been given but that horrific is not the only obstacle to getting aid into these places, is it? >> no, it's a question of logistics as well according to

the world health organization and probably will not be able to deliver aid to the opposition-controlled areas in aleppo city not before a week or probably a few weeks before reaching ba -- baseiged areas and it's not just fighting on the ground but approval and what the w.h.o. said is they want to be able to deliver more regularly, yes, they have delivered more aid in 2014 than they did in 2013 but what they want is more access because millions of people really rely on aid to survive, not just medical supplies but food as well and we know the healthcare system has been crippled in syria, lack of doctors, people who suffer from chronic illnesses are not able to get any medicine, lack of electricity for example and diabetes patients cannot store their insulin so it's a worsening problem. >> reporter: meanwhile we know

the u.n. on board syria has been talking about a freeze and fighting on the ground in places like aleppo, is that likely to happen at all? >> well, the united nations put forward this proposal in october and since then holding meetings with the warring side and no agreement as of yet and we agree from opposition they are skeptical and do not believe that the government will uphold a ceasefire without some sort of guaranty and worried the government will use or take advantage of the lull in the fighting to step up operations on other front across the country. as for the government we understand from sources close to the government they are not really happy because this plan is not just a question of a freeze in the fighting, it's going to involve some sort of monitoring mechanism and u.n. peace keepers and according to sources u.n. allows the opposition to rule their own territories and the governments won't accept this because the

government doesn't want to lose any sovereignty in the words of those sources. so this is going to be a very difficult process but according to the united nations they are still going to try to get the -- both sides to reach some sort of agreement because what we have seen really over recent weeks is fierce fighting in aleppo, the government is trying to lay siege on opposition controlled east of the city. >> thank you for that, that is our correspondent from beirut. iraq kurdish forces known as peshmerga is lows to breaking the siege in sinjar on neighborhoods on the outskirts of town regarding the trapped people. >> translator: peshmerga control more than a quarter of the city and can't say we control half of the city but for sure we control more than a quarter and it's going well and morale is well and fighters of

the kurdish protection units and all people manage to fight and block. >> reporter: the shia government in iraq turning police into a local force and hoping to bolster isil fighters but is nothing providing support for the program and we have a report from a training camp near mosul. >> reporter: preparing for battle, these men are heart of the effort for the police and made up of police officers and volunteers and they are at the camp away from mosul by leaders and the time to take the city from isil, only a handful of rifles is all they have got but what they lack in fire power they makeup in bravado.

>> translator: we are ready and waiting for orders to move on mosul and we want to free our town from these people. >> reporter: more than 4,000 men have been trained in this camp. these men are a key part of the plan to retake iraq's biggest city from isil and it won't be easy to take mosul and will take fighting and in this camp they are quiet. those with experience in front-line fighting have formed into a swat team but there are problems. shortly after isil seized mosul in june the government cutoff the officer's salaries and that is also in support of efforts to reconstitute the force. >> translator: we have not been paid several months and family displaced and payment of salaries really have increased. >> reporter: complicating the revival of the force is the

political conflict between officials and baghdad and he is the governor of mosul and says he plans to use malitia with mosul and that would back fire. >> i need weapons first, the training and the financing these fighters and also i need the airforce support when we enter mosul especially to cut the supply of isis from outside the city. >> reporter: for now the men go on and apply to one example of how rebuilding iraq may lesson air power and bombing ramps of the united states and bridging the central government and local leaders, mohamed with al jazeera, outside mosul, iraq. yemen security officials say

five bombs exploded in the old town killing one person and wounding many others and witnesses say when the bombs exploded after houthi rebel tried to dismantle it. to bomb ings in northern nigeria killed 32 and wounded more and the market in bauchi was hit when a car bomb was detonated and dominick cane reports. >> reporter: this is the aftermath of the explosion in bauchi and happened at a busy market and came without warning. killing or wounding dozens of people. around 150 kilometers away another device was detonated, this time at a bus station, at the time the place was packed with travelers. the authorities say that many of those who died were burned, beyond recognition. dozens of people were seriously wounded. >> there are degrees of injuries

and many injuries. >> reporter: this is the second such attack in the last two months. although no group has claimed it carried out either bombing, local officials say they are similar to other attacks carried out by the radical armed group boko haram. >> boko haram has grown stronger in one year and more fighters and had more tactics and has been able to hold on to territory and for all of these reasons the city is getting suddenly worse than it was a year ago. >> reporter: some estimates say more than 10,000 people have been killed by acts like in nigeria so far this year, a waive of violence that the government appears to be struggling to stop, dominick cane, al jazeera. lots more to come in this news hour, cracking the disease

code, we meet the british scientist using dna to fight cancer. new waterway that could rival the panama canal and report from nicaragua why it's giving environmentists that sinking feeling and why the first trophy of the season was the first for the middle east too and details coming up, in sport. ♪ pakistan's prime minister sharif wants to fast track death row executions and 55 face death penalty in the next few weeks and six men hanged since friday after they lifted the capitol punishment on what it calls terror related cases and follows an attack in peshawar that killed 148 people most of them

children. the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. has described life in north korea as a living nightmare and u.n. security council discussed the human rights record for the first time and yang says it's based on lies from the u.n. in new york and kristen reports. >> reporter: north korea decided not to show up and that didn't stop the u.n. security council. it rarely discusses the human rights record of countries not in the midst of violent conflict but u.n. commission of inquiry found the abus are unprecedented and may amount to crimes against humanity. >> victims of persecution of political, religious, racial and gender grounds. people who have been forcefully transferred whose loved ones have been abducted or disappeared without trace, people who have been

deliberately starved for long periods. >> reporter: the criticism is directed at the top levels of government which the u.n. has criticized for funding the world's fourth largest military even as its own people were starving. one of north korea's fewest allies, china objected to the meeting saying the human rites would be counter productive. >> translator: the security council should work more to facilitate dialog and ease tension and refrain from doing anything that might cause the escalation of tension. >> reporter: the unprecedented meeting comes soon after north korea threatened to attack the united states from accusing pyongyang for hacking into sony entertainment and sony cancelled the interview, showing the assassination of the leader

kim-jung-un. >> and threatened people daring to go to the movie warning them to quote remember the 11th of september, end quote. not content with denying freedom of expression to its own people the north korean regime now seems intent of suppressing the fundamental freedom in our nation. >> reporter: the human rights record is now exposed to the world by the united nations, general assembly recommended referring pyongyang to the international court but with threat of veto they are taking no further action for now. christine with al jazeera, the united nations. north korean websites are back on line after an internet outage access which is limited to elite and down for several hours and white house declined to say if the u.s. government is involved and u.s. accused them of a cyber attack on sony pictures. hong kong's richest man five

years in jail for corruption and billionaire thomas was found guilty of bribing one of the city's top officials, the politician received more than $1 million in kickbacks and the scandal shocked hong kong's financial center and galvanized anger against the city elite and this case has come as a shock it does highlight that hong kong does have an independent legal system. >> this is, in fact, the very heart of some of the conundrum and some of the problems that underpin these so called umbrella movement in hong kong. and a lot of young people feel there is colusion and not only the young people but deep-seeded feeling in a large part of the population because of the high prices that they are able to capture a great deal of the

profits and then as it goes out of reach of ordinary people it feeds into a lot of social discontent and don't forget the current place in hong kong started the sort of rumbling about e ratifications that are well before the current corruption campaign in china but on the other hand it's a coin dense because the country and hong kong tried to rid itself of this cancer sell that corrups the government and the judge referred to his past performance as a top civil servant and he took part with the top executive and the financial attack on hong kong dollar during the financial crisis.

so i think that he was highly regarded, but on the other hand it is just this contradiction that such a capable man was capable of such corruption so there is a huge shock as to hong kong people and who is hong kong civil service which i had been a part for 38 years and that opposed hong kong's independence of judiciary and the corruption system and on the one hand it really reaffirms hong kong is where the rule of law still reigns. >> reporter: in china the government has launched an investigation into former president's top aid, state media says he is facing disciplinary violations and fell out of favor two years ago after the alleged cover up of his son's death in a car crash and one of several high-profile people being investigated by the president.

tony abbot says security agencies intercepted what he describes as terrorist chatter in the aftermath of the hostage taking at a sidney cafe. >> i'm alerting people to the fact that the terror threat remains high and as you will all understand at this level an attack is likely. we don't know when and how an attack may come but we do know that there are people with the intent and the capability to carry out further attacks and that is why it's important that as well as being reassured that people are aware of the reality of these times. >> reporter: funeral head for the manager of the cafe, the site of the siege last week and tory johnson was killed during the 16-hour standoff and services for dawson who was also

killed are planned tuesday afternoon, the hostage taker is self described man with a criminal past died at the scene. new york city mayor bill deblasio and rallies across the united states for use of force and says he insighted anger against officers and he visited the office of families and promised to attend their funerals. >> a time for every new yorker to think about the families and focus on the families and put them first. we can do that by respecting their pain, respecting their time of mourning. i'm asking everyone and this is across the spectrum to put aside protests, put aside demonstrations until these

funerals are past let's focus on the families and what they lost. they released surveillance video of the shooter before he carried out the attack and shows him at a shopping mall and walked up to the squad car and shot them before killing himself. beji caid essebsi will be the president and the 88-year-old wound the second around of the presidential election for just over 55% of the vote. the poll is the final step to democracy but many challenges do lie ahead and as we report from the capitol tunis. ♪ it was the moment the people had been waiting for, after a tightly contested runoff the head of the committee said who will be the first democrat president.

>> victory of the president beji caid essebsi, the 2014 presidential elections. >> reporter: esby is a veteran politicians and at 88 held numerous posts under the ousted dictator but now he has the top and ironically because of the revolution which this time four years ago got rid of the man he once served and loser in the election moncef marzouki refused until the final was announced and polls strongly suggested he would not win and the choice as many people were concerned was between es esby and moncef marzouki and the nature of the race had several incidents of violence where moncef marzouki supporters clashed with police and concern among some that essebsi could be since the revolution may be a threat.

>> it may be a threat because with the regime there are a lot of people related to the regime in the party and in this course he uses is about establishing the strong state which means usually police state. >> reporter: the main party which came second in parliamentary elections refuse to back either candidate and however the party insists that regardless of politics people should rejoice. >> think about the process about we think about and we for the moment achieved important steps towards consolidation of the democratic process and tunisia is powerful for the whole region. >> reporter: the street the division among the people is clear, uniting the polarized society and did fusing tension is what the new president will have to face. >> translator: i feel disappointed and people have been deceived and we have a

revolution and hope this is not the result and hope he does at promised but i doubt it. >> translator: the most important is stability for the country and this is a great experience and happy we are becoming a democracy. >> translator: the most important things for the country is to ability and that is what we want. >> reporter: on a historic night like this central tunis at the avenue where we are should be packed with crowds celebrating but police ban people from conjugating here, tonight a clear example of how tense the situation is. and people close another chapter in their push to democracy the whole place but this won't be the last one, i'm with al jazeera, tunis. violence broken out in several libyan cities benghazi 20 troops loyal were killed and more than 60 injured. 3 rebel fighters killed and

another 5 wounded and eastern port city five people were killed when the war planes bombed a gathering of malitia. al jazeera continues to demand the release of our three journalists in prison in egypt for 360 days, greste and fahmy and mohamed jailed on helping the out lawed muslim brotherhood and sentenced 7 years and then additional three years for having a spent bullet in his possession which he picked up at a protest. and now to the weather with rob and fog still causing problems in northern india, rob. >> reporter: afraid it has, it has been densely foggy in one or two places. i have a picture and it's not the case everywhere, a picture here from deli itself and that is where i say misty than foggy but 25 meters in places and this is satellite picture and one

thing is interesting, this is a picture of temperature if you like and shows the pulsing cold overnight that hangs on and beyond and i suspect it's not going to change for the next three days, result of that is low temperatures is we will get the fog back again so for every morning for the next 3-4 days destruction is quite possible if not likely. so there is the forecast and the rain is confined now and it's a dry picture and cold picture elsewhere. and the source region for this sort of weather has been straight from the west and out of europe crossing the high ground and these streaks of cloud across jordan and 10th of rain in lebanon and do not expect change or much rain in the next couple of days and it's on its way out. and generated in qatar and down to 23 degrees and 10-15 miles

per hour, liz. lots more to come here on al jazeera. we report on the rise of the far right and east germany with the ranks of one anti-immigration group swelling plus. finding hope after devastation and death and learning a lesson in the process, i'm in shri lanka. top of the league tree coming into christmas and details coming up, in sport. ♪

♪

good to have you with us, i'm elizabeth in doha, these are the top stories this news hour, in syria government war plans carried out a series of strikes targeting children and schools in damascus and province were hit today, as many as ten children killed and follows an air strike on a school bus on monday, four children were killed in that attack. kurdish forces in iraq known as peshmerga are close to breaking the siege on sinjar on the outskirts of the town lifting bro blockade for thousands of people and record turn out at the polls and no party to get a majority in the disputed region which is routinely plagued by violence. and we have a former indian diplomate from the capitol new deli and very good to have you

with us on al jazeera and we are seeing a record turn out in kashmir even though they tell them to boy court elections and how is this for peace and document and progress there in kashmir. >> a factor despite winter there, the turn out is very good because normally you do not hold elections there in the peak of winter because it's snow bound. this is because we had now the transition from one democratic government to the other for the last almost ten years. we have two national parties and two local parties and the pay has been here and you have nation national, a degree of national input and you have local aspirations and the two are married and that is how it took place and the result is i think a combination of both of these because one has the largest seats is pdp a local party, more right of center than the national conference which was

providing the previous chief minister and the two national parties which is ruling from deli and congress which was early ruling out of deli. >> let's talk about the bjp which has been campaigning in the election like never before and what are the chances, the chances of a hindu nationalist party being elected and doing well this a muslim majority sta state. >> you see, they were saying before the election they won 44 seats on their own which is majority that you need and what they have is 25 and that is largely from the hindu dominated area. but the interesting thing is the three points they were raising which they said was part of the ideology which is eliminating article 370 and gives great review of autonomy to bjp and a couple other elements, reducing industry to the same status as the rest of the indian states and if they want to be part of a

ruling coalition and they have to compromise on that and what we are hearing today after the election results was their spokesman is saying it's one thing but when it comes to forming the government we will look at it as we go along and similarly as far as local party pjp talking about autonomy and much more independence-oriented rhetoric which they have and that is the interesting thing where the aspirations of the people of the state and the national considerations come together. >> mr. sing you spoke about transition of democratically elected places and it remains in some state of limbo with spor sporadic and violence and can elections really change any of that for the good when the very area of kashmid remains disputed

and how much of the situation can it really improve? >> from 2002 when president was in pakistan and there was a ceasefire and more or less held last year and what we have seen is we have a wired fence across the border and reduced and really the violence down the last 3-4 years but it's a factor of what pakistan does from the other side, when the military doesn't support infiltration is when the violence goes down and over all the people of the valley reject it because of turn out because militant factions and resident militant factions asked for a boycott and there is not a boycott because people want to participate in the democratic process and he accepted you can only have a solution with india largely around status quo and you cannot in today's world talk about changing borders or both borders of weapon stays or use of force

bodies so a solution has to be based on the basis of greater autonomy and greater interaction between the two sides in kashmid and greater interaction in pakistan, the way you look at europe to be. >> joining us from the indian capitol new deli there and thank you very much for your time, thank you. now in a few hours greek politicians are voting again to try and elect a new president, conservative government failed to get enough support for its candidate in the first round last week. final vote will be on the 29th of december. if the government doesn't elect it will have to announce early elections. thousands of people have taken to the streets to attend a far right rally in the eastern german city of dresdin and part of a growing movement against immigration but rally also triggered counter protests and as nick spicer reports. >> reporter: it's a protest movement that has surprised germany and unsettled politician

and the leader a convicted burglar and cocaine dealer does most of the talking and rails against the media and tells followers slanders him and the freedom of speech is at stake and counter demonstrators who spoke out got this welcome. the agenda clearly short for the movement of patriotic europeans against the islamification of europe. >> it's not very positive for the wealth and flee from -- freedom from europe and that is why i'm here with my daughter since i think the future is also something that we should be very concerned about. >> reporter: riot police as in weeks past keep counter demonstrators away. some say they are ashamed of their city with the far right demonstrates every year when it was firebombed in world war ii providing some say for a child ground for the movement.

>> i think it's a shame for the city and germany they are still movements from this political party or there political site, for our nation and our country and for the citizens and it's really bad and represents my town and the meaning of germans. >> it's not only like this. >> reporter: if they are against the movement the same cannot be said for germany political class as a whole and some politicians think it should be shunned and others think a dialog should be begun and others said it should be condemned outright and includes the german chancellor angela merkel the popular politician and should be respected but the phobias have no place in germany. british rock star died at the age of 70, grammy award winner had been suffering from

lung cancer. ♪ unchain my heart ♪ baby let me go known for his soleful voice started in 68 with the cover of the beetles song with a little help from my friends and other hits include feeling all right. you are so beautiful and the duet up where we belong with jennifer warrens. nicaragua on ground on the cross country canal on monday and the chinese backed venture will help with the economy and poverty and a massive project that has environmental down sides and we report from the capitol. for decades shoe makers in this market in central here have sold products locally and he inherited his shop from his father and plans to give it to his sons but he says he doesn't have the skills or the resources to expand his business.

>> translator: i think the document of the canal will create jobs and perhaps bring better technology which would allow me to make better shoes faster. >> reporter: the world food program says 42% of the population live under the poverty line. francisco says the canal may offer a lifeline. >> may not directly benefit small businesses like these but many store owners here hoping it will bring many more tourists. >> reporter: also plans to develop a free trade zone and new infrastructure and economists say nicaragua current growth rate of 4.5% could double and the government says the country's large scale exports like coffee will make good use of waterway which is due to be ready in five years and the coffee owner has mixed feelings. >> translator: if the canal is indeed built this will mean injection of capital the country has not seen and a great

economic opportunity and we must look at environmental studies to make sure it's properly managed. >> reporter: reports into the canal's over all feasibility and impact on the environment still have not been delivered. green activists say nicaragua's lake which will form the core of the waterway will be contaminated by sentiment on the bottom. >> it's a source of drinking water for 17 years, 2500 fishermen who feed the families and support the economy will be directly effected and there are five species of fish crucial to the food security. >> reporter: many people say they do not know if protecting the environment is more important than development but francisco says he does know he would like the chance for his business and his country to reach its potential. i'm with al jazeera, nick rag -- nicaragua. tsunami hit the indian ocean

and 30,000 were killed in sri lanka and huge gaps in how the country is to deal with natural disasters but that is starting to change as we report. >> reporter: family swallowed up by the sea, and his heavily pregnant wife and two children swept away by the tsunami in 2004. >> translator: my wife was ahead of my in the garden and she was carrying the oldest child and i was holder the youngest and carrying my wife and children away, the wave. >> reporter: five years ago met a fellow survivor and now have three children and this village is one of the worst effected in the district. more than 30,000 people were killed around the country, more still on the southern and eastern coasts. people here had never seen waves

as big or as powerful as the wall of water that crashed into sri lanka ten years ago and didn't know what to do or how to react but that has changed. early warning system and evacuation drills and awareness program is an important part of the country disaster strategy. >> community disaster base is well organized and people already aware about the disaster management and emergency. >> reporter: 77 early warning towers like this one have been built around the country. during the 2011 tsunami alert he says it was evacuated in 20 minutes. this evokes mixed emotions and won't bring his first family back but will protect his current one. i'm with al jazeera, eastern sri lanka.

going alone and russia successfully test launched the newest rocket, the first since the collapse of the soviet union. nba leader scorer had a big night and jo will be here with the details. ♪ t the journalists live.

♪ project in britain trying to help decode the secrets behind cancer and rare genetic diseases and under taken by the uk's national health service and centers around the human genome

carrying genetic material including everyone's unique dna and centers across the uk to collect samples with the patient concept to target diseases to aim to build up a bank of genetic code and that way researchers might be able to identify mutations which cause diseases like cancer. and we have the director of genetic alliance uk. >> individual patients and families will be recruited through the 11 centers. they will have blood samples taken and those will be sent to a central laboratory where they will be analyzed and the information will then be linked with their medical history, their physiology, their condition. so that the links between the changes in their dna that are identified and the conditions that effect them can be identified and that way you can understand the underlying processes that are going on and

hopefully in the form of some time maybe develop new strategies. >> argentina has ruled orangoutang has some same legal rights as humans and born in germany and loved at the buenes-ares zoo and says she needs better conditions and say her cognitive ability to give her the same right to life humans have and sandra will be moved from the zoo to a sanctuary. now, russia has successfully launched a new rocket in space, the hefty a-5 is designed to send satellites into orbit and russia announced plans to drop out of the international space station in favor of building its own, but the plummeting price of oil say it will be hard for them

to cover the cost of restarting the space race and peter sharp reports from moscow. >> reporter: christmas and new year cheer for russia ending a horrible year with the launch of the monster a-5 rocket, the first new launch in two decades and more than ten years in the planning and placed the dummy satellite in orbit 36,000 kilometers above the equator and since he was the first man to orbit the earth in 1961 success in the space race and achievements in space technology were very much part of the old soviet cold war competitive mindset and in a new era confrontation with the west they want to demonstrate it's still very much in the race. with russia hoping to launch its own orbit space platform in the future and russia needs to stay in space and money in this venture is of secondary

importance say experts. >> translator: this was a project of the minister defense and strategically important to be able to send satellites from russian territory and if we within to keep russia as a country this is a priority. >> reporter: this is inside russia, not here at the usual launch pad inside caukazistan a there will be a political dividend from the new space initiatives. >> this launch will have a great impact on the people in russia because of symbols and because from the soviet time russia was famous for space technologies. >> not a lot of ordinary russians will say look forget about put agree space craft in orbit and let's sort out what going on the ground and sort out

the horrible economy. >> when you spend money for improving the situation not to have these plans but from another point of view additions plan can help to improve economy nationally. >> reporter: you see these old monuments to the soviet space race across moscow but long-term plans to reach the stars are set to be grounded for some time and ambitious design for the own orbiting space station look impressive but in the current economic climate some say the kremlin would have a problem finding the money to put the designs on paper, peter sharp, al jazeera in moscow. we are joined by a space analyst and when men walked on the moon and joins us by skype from sidney now and very good to have you with us on al jazeera. >> thank you. >> reporter: so this rocket first designed from scratch in

russia since the collapse of the soviet union and how significant is this for russia and space programs? >> well, the document of this development of the booster has taken far longer than people expect and people in the space community are relieved after all these years and so many delays we finally got to see the full vehicle fly and not just see it fly but perform so flawlessly so it's a big step forward for russia when it had such stagnation and failures in some of the high-profile projects in attempts to reach mars. >> is it worth some $3 billion that the government has spent on it? can russia afford it in the current economic climate or staying advanced with the space race just as important? >> i think the real issue is that russia cannot afford not to do this. the cost is fairly modest. they will save a lot of money in

the long-term because it's a very modern rocket. it will be more efficient in terms of its lifting and its operations and i think if they didn't build this advance in the booster they would fall behind as a major world space power and they cannot afford to do that economically and cannot afford to do that strategically and cannot afford to do that politically so there will be advantages on every front and the russians simply had to do this on internal and external reasons. >> reporter: when you say they cannot afford to do it economically we can certainly understand it. >> no. >> reporter: they can't afford to do it. >> they can't afford to do it economically. >> reporter: what economic benefits does it bring the country to do this? >> okay, as we heard in the main news story this is going to reduce their dependence in kazistan because it's designed to be released from a northern

launch location and if they can reduce depending on the kazistan government they can save money because they don't have to pay the rent of this and i think eventually probably in a few decades time they will pull out entirely out of kazistan and be not only economic independent of kizistan and politically independent and that is a big issue for them, the fact they simply do not have control over the launch site or even the landing site of their own cosmonauts because of landing in kazistan. >> reporter: joining us from sidney and good to have you with us, thank you, time for sport and here is jo. >> elizabeth thank you and got the first trophy in futbol in a game that went to penalties and the venue for the show down was the capitol doha and as richard par reports having the super copper in the middle east for

the first time was just as important for the host as it was for the italian team. >> reporter: it's been held in china, the united states, and even libya, fans now in qatar had the chance to look at the sup super copter and meant to be held in august but it was postponed so they could concentrate on the champion league so qatar stepped? >> good experience. >> experience this all over the world and the support is admitting the champion and happen to this champion here. >> these players do not have a chance on their end so they came here, we can watch them and we can enjoy it. >> reporter: one of the fans they came to see is carlos and this is in the 5th minute and he

is the star argentina forward and struck in the second half and then cross forward and headed in the equalizer. with the score 1-1 extra time was needed and appeared he had sealed the victory with his second goal. but in the 118th minute he scrambled in another equalizer, 2-2 and penalties were needed and raffaele was the hero with a kick of 6-5 victory. and the naples side becoming the first to win the super coper in the middle east and they are not the only teams based in qatar in the winter break and team also be coming here and gives qatar

to impress with facilities and abilities ahead of the 2022 world cup. richard par, al jazeera, doha. chelsea said they will sit top of the league on christmas and wrapped up a win beating stoke city 2-0 on monday and gave chelsea the lead in the second minute and completed the victory in the second half. and the team have lost one of their 26 games this season so far. and they are now three points clear of second place man city. >> victory that means more than three points not just because it's difficult, but also because to win here you need to put more than just your quality. >> reporter: nba leading scorer this season james harden netted 44 points to help the houston rockets beat the portland trailblazers 110-95, 31 of the

points came in the first half. it is the third time this month that he scored more than 40. a little bit of revenge for the rockets too having been knocked out by the trailblazers in the first round of the playoffs last season. less than a month since the death of australia cricket houston and it was seen when they trained on monday and shaken after being hit on the helmet by a ball practicing in the net and wasn't injured but both he and the baller james left the net visibly distressed and will begin the third test against india at the ncg on friday. mohamed ali family says boxing has improved since having pneumonia and he is at an undisclosed location and the family appreciates the well

wishes and hopes to be discharged from hospital soon on also suffers parkinson disease. 2015 will be another tough year for the italian formula one team and ferrari failed to win a race last season for the first time since 1993 and they expect them to spend next year rebuilding and starts with a new driver line up in arrival of full time from red bull and german already testing and fulfilling a childhood dream. >> been a fantastic day to come here. i remember having been here a long, long time ago as a little child driving here and trying to look over the fence so to be here officially as part of the team felt fantastic with the possibility to drive the car and get to know the team, yeah, it was an unique experience and is a different collar for me and

everybody is dressed in red and everything is red and it's something special and i'm very much looking forward to the other challenge that we took on for the next years. >> reporter: the most successful german skier in the men's world cup and clinched his tenth victory in the last race of the year in italy on monday and led a german one team with teammate fretz and tough in the standings ahead of reigning champion and more on our website, check out al jazeera.com/sport and details there on how to get in touch with our team using twitter and facebook. i'll be back with more a little bit later, that is the sport, elizabeth. >> thank you very much, jo, well, that is it for me, elizabeth and the entire news hour team but we do have another full bulletin of news coming up, right ahead with jane and thanks for watching. ♪

>> we were talking to a young lady saying she just wanted her voice to get out there. >> by the thousands, they're sending their government a message. >> ahead of 'em is a humanitarian crisis where tens of thousands of people are without food, water, shelter. >> a special one hour look at global attacks on free press. next monday 9:00 eastern. on al jazeera america.

>> was it karma or the nsa? someone or something has just taken down the internet in kim jung un's north korea after a threat to an aisle ate the united states. the price of oil keeps plunging. not everyone in america will see a big savings on their heating bill. when professional athletes become agent visits, league sponsors get nervous. a top agent will rev